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Brooke Hogan is exploding these days! The eighteen
year old daughter of wrestling mega-icon Hulk Hogan, Brooke has been professionally
singing and dancing for years and this past month has been climbing the
charts with her hit single, "About Us" featuring Paul Wall.
Her album Undiscovered drops on October 24th and offers up an eclectic
combination of Pop, Hip Hop and R&B sounds to reflect the influence
of the Miami studio where Brooke recorded her debut album in conjunction
with the brilliant producing of Scott Storch. When I caught up with Brooke,
she was busy doing radio interviews and filming the third season of VH1's
hit reality show, Hogan Knows Best.

We talk about what it's like having Hulk Hogan for a
father, Brooke's experiences in recording her album, Undiscovered,
the dynamic of the Hogan family and balancing fame with being a teenager

PR.com (Allison Kugel): What's a typical day like
for you in promoting your new album, Undiscovered? What are you
up to today and what are you doing to promote your first album's release?

Brooke Hogan: I've been going to every radio station
in America and we personally deliver the song to the radio station (her
first single, "About Us"). We say, "Hi." We shake
hands and make friends and stuff, and we see if they like the record and
then they play the record (laughs) Doing shows here and there
but mostly just interviews with radio.

PR.com: So you go in there, you do a couple minutes
of interview and then they play the single

Brooke Hogan: Right.

PR.com: Is SoBe Entertainment an independent label?

Brooke Hogan: Yes it is and that's the label I'm signed
with.

PR.com: And I know that you have other musical abilities
besides singing, you studied piano

PR.com: Is there going to be heavy dance performance
in your music videos?

Brooke Hogan: Every music video, I'm dancing in. Unless
it's a ballad, I'm definitely going to be dancing (laughs)! I'll
bug the hell out of people who don't let me dance!

PR.com: I saw little bits of the first music video
you shot, because the Hogan Knows Best cameras were there during
the shoot. I only saw little bits of it. What kind of dance will be in
that video?

Brooke Hogan: It's that urban, hip hop flare. The girl that
choreographed it, her name is High Hat, and she did all of Missy Elliot's
and Sierra's videos. She's cool.

PR.com: How did you hook up with super producer, Scott
Storch, and with Paul Wall?

Brooke Hogan & Paul Wall

Brooke Hogan: It was a funny story actually. I was in
The Hit Factory in Miami and we were recording, and Paul Wall was in the
studio next door to us. He heard that Hulk Hogan was next door and he
was a big Hulk Hogan fan, so he came over. And this whole time I was taking
a break. So I was at the vending machines talking to other people who
were at the studio; Fergie (from The Black Eyed Peas) was there
that night. P. Diddy was there. So I was talking to everybody else, being
totally star struck. I was actually outside of the studio. Meanwhile Paul
Wall and my dad are talking about wrestling and laughing and stuff and
Scott Storch was in there on the beat for "About Us." Paul was
like, "Man, who is this singing, and what is this song?" He
goes, "That's a really hot beat!" And my dad says, "That's
my daughter." So he goes, "No kidding! Yo, can I be on it?!"
(laughs) So he started writing the song on his sidekick, and when
I walked back in to record again, Paul Wall was recording in the booth,
on my song. I was like, "You gotta be kidding me!" Audio
Clip

PR.com: That's funny! I can't imagine the song without
him. And I love the opening!

Brooke Hogan: Yeah it's cool. (Imitating herself)
"What it do, Paul Wall?" I remember they told me to say that
and I was like, what? How do I say it??

PR.com: It's very sexy! It's perfect!

Brooke Hogan: Thank you!

PR.com: And Scott Storch is one of the biggest producers
in popular music right now. What makes his producing style so unique and
so sought after?

Brooke Hogan: I actually asked him about that myself.
I was like, "How do you do that and become so famous and such a big
producer?" And Scott Storch really has a huge background in music.
He can play the piano like Beethoven. He's really amazing. He knows everything
about music and how to play each instrument. He's insane! He's a genius!
But he said, "Even though I have this huge musical background, the
key to having a hit song is keeping it simple, so the public can remember
it and learn it quickly and stuff." So he just keeps the beat really
simple, like Paul Wall, there was just the baseline and then there was
(she recites the sound for me). It was just enough to be catchy.

PR.com: Explain exactly what a producer is. When you
say that somebody produced a song or produced a beat a producer
goes into the studio with a recording artist, what exactly does the producer
do?

Brooke Hogan: A producer first makes the beat, makes
the song, gets the writers on it, puts the song together makes sure
there's the beat, the music, the lyrics, everything's all taken care of.
Then you walk in and he sits there with you and he kind of directs you
on how to sing the song. Like, "Oh, we want a little bit of a soft
part on this lyric, so sing it softer." He just kind of critiques
the whole song and makes it his picture. So, you pretty much paint his
masterpiece. Audio
Clip

PR.com: I didn't even know that. I thought that the
producer just does the beat.

Brooke Hogan: No, no, no. He makes the beats and then he'll
sit there and we go through the whole song together and he'll sit there
all night. So we go through the whole song together and his writers will
be in there and you know, they picture how the song is supposed to sound.
'Cause if you think about it, the producer, first he made the music and
now he's kind of making a song. So he's telling the artist, "This
is what this song needs to make it how I pictured it."

Undiscovered Album Cover

PR.com: Cool! I learned something just now! I know
you moved to Miami recently. Tell me about the music scene in Miami, versus
L.A. and New York

Brooke Hogan: L.A. and New York I feel like are kind of
getting washed up, in the music part. New York I think is more for, like,
the modeling and fashion and publicity and stuff it's great for
that. L.A. is good for, more like, rock music. Certain places have different
things. Like Atlanta and Miami do all the hip hop stuff. And even Atlanta
does a different flavor of Hip Hop then Miami does. And then New York
and L.A. do more of the pop/rock stuff. That's what I've learned because
I've done both kinds of music.

PR.com: On your album, is it all that combination
of Pop, R&B and Hip Hop?

Brooke Hogan: It's a combination of Pop and Hip Hop all
put together. Scott [Storch] got really creative with it and he took flavors
from everywhere. When I walked into the studio the first time with him,
[he asked me] what are your influences and stuff? And I said that I grew
up on Funk and Hip Hop, you know? My mom played me The Isley Brothers
and Stevie Wonder and so I just said that I want a little bit of that
kind of flavor to it. If you listen to all the songs, the bridge sounds
like something The Isley Brothers would have done back in the day and
it's really cool.

PR.com: Did you get an opportunity to write any of
your own lyrics or did you work with songwriters?

Brooke Hogan: Yeah. At the beginning I didn't get to write
that much because we were on a really pressed time schedule, but once
we found out we had more time, Scott was like, "Well, you know, we
have a couple more songs on the album that we need to get done. Do you
want to write to them?" So I was like, "Hell yeah!" I've
been writing ever since I was little.

PR.com: What did you write about?

Brooke Hogan: I wrote about, you know, typical things that
girls go through, like relationships. How I've actually had a couple friends
that have gone through it too, you know, like one-sided love

PR.com: Yeah

Brooke Hogan: You know, you do everything for this guy
and he doesn't do anything for you! (laughs)

PR.com: Oh God! I have to teach you a couple things!
(laughs)

Brooke Hogan: (Laughs) And you know, about having
a party and having to want to have a good time with life and approaching
a guy and giving him your number and just everything, you know?

PR.com: The things that eighteen year olds go through,
right?

Brooke Hogan: Exactly!

PR.com: I remember those days! People probably look
at someone like you and say, "She's eighteen and she has her whole
life ahead of her. She's successful, she's got it made." But people
don't realize how hard it is to be a teenager and how something like being
in love with a guy who doesn't treat you well can be the most devastating
thing in the world.

Brooke Hogan & Hulk Hogan

Brooke Hogan: It's really hard to be a teenager and then
throwing the music business on top of it, I can see how some of these
teenagers get really messed up, you know? Some of these child stars that
just get really, really messed up in the head and get really jaded. Thank
god I have my parents behind me all the way and I have been raised in
this business, so it's kind of like second nature to me. But just being
a teenager and having to also work. I want days that I can go to the movies
with my friends, but instead I have to go to the studio every night; and
I want to be able to wake up and go to the gym and see my friends and
go to the beach, but I have to film a TV show (VH1's "Hogan Knows
Best"). So those critical years where you want to branch out
and become your own person I'm stuck staying at home working. There's
good and bad sides to all of it, but the show was definitely a blessing
but you have to definitely be an adult. There's no going back to being
a kid.

PR.com: It's funny because every time I watch your
show, I see this look of genuine torment on your father's face, like he's
about to just like, have a heart attack! (laughs)

Brooke Hogan: (Laughs) Right. Well, I'm a pretty
good girl. I think it's my brother that you see that face over, 'cause
my brother's a wild child and he doesn't really have a job yet and he's
not in the music business or anything. He's racing cars for Dodge, but
that's, like, a once a month thing. So he gets most of the time to just
mess around. And even VH1, his parts that he needs to do, the time of
filming that he has is nothing compared to what me and my family have
to do. He's wild and free in Miami.

PR.com: But you're daddy's little girl and you could
tell that he's so nervous about what's going to happen with boyfriends
and what's gonna happen with your career and if you're gonna be ok and
happy. You know what I mean? You can see it on his face all the time!

Brooke Hogan: I know, my poor dad. But we're making it through.
I think now he's not as worried because I am eighteen and he realizes
that I have a good head on my shoulders. I haven't done anything stupid
yet.

PR.com: Has he loosened the reigns a little bit with
dating?

Brooke Hogan: Yeah, definitely. It was funny because,
you know, parents sometimes like when you're a kid, parents tell you that
Santa Claus is real and, oh my gosh, if you say a bad word, that's the
end of your life, you know? (laughs) And my dad, up until I was
eighteen, always made me think that he was this overprotective kind of
guy. And it was for good reason because there were a lot of snakes out
there trying to get me. But he was a little bit more overprotective than
normal, than he really naturally is. So when I turned eighteen, he was
like, "You know what Brooke, I want you to know that I am a human
being and I'm a real person and I want you to go out on dates and stuff.
I don't want to keep you sheltered your whole life." He's like, "Now
that you're eighteen, you can come and go as you please. I believe that
I raised you the right way, and you can do whatever you want now."
I kind of looked at him like, "What?!" (laughs) I was
kind of like a deer in the headlights. I didn't know what to say. Audio
Clip

PR.com: (Laughs) A leap of faith!

Brooke Hogan: I still stay close to the hip. I stay close
to home. I don't really go out that much because I'm working all the time.
So it's kind of like an upside for them, 'cause I'm constantly working
so I can't really come and go as I please.

PR.com: I read something really funny, so I have to
ask you about it that your dad threw Aaron Carter (brother of
Backstreet Boy, Nick Carter, and star of the E! Network Reality Show,
"House of Carters") out of your house?

Brooke Hogan

Brooke Hogan: Oh yeah! [Aaron] tried to date me and my
dad kind of saw right through him and he was like, "No dude. You
are definitely not hanging out here." But Aaron's a really cool kid.
Aaron's really, really nice and he's a really cool guy.

PR.com: So he came to your house to try to take you
out?

Brooke Hogan: Yeah, we met at an airport and we started
hanging out and stuff, and when he came over to my house, my dad was like,
"Absolutely not!" Audio
Clip

PR.com: Whose idea was the reality show, Hogan
Knows Best? Was that conceived by you or your dad or ?

Brooke Hogan: It was actually VH1's idea. They came to us
first after they heard I was in the music business and I was trying to
make it in music and my dad was my dad. They were like, "Oh man,
it'd be so cool to do a one hour special on you guys!" So we did
the one hour special and it ended up being the highest rated special that
they ever had on VH1. So they said, "Let's do a reality show!"
And we said yes.

PR.com: When I was telling my brother that I was going
to be speaking with you, he just totally hit the ceiling. He was like,
"Oh my God, Hulk Hogan is my hero! I grew up with him! I watched
him all the time!" He said, "You have to tell Brooke that your
brother David loves her father so much." So I had to tell you that.

Brooke Hogan: Oh yeah! I'll definitely tell him then.

PR.com: By the way, you guys are the blondest family
I've ever seen in my life!

Brooke Hogan: I know.

PR.com: Are you natural blondes?

Brooke Hogan: Me and my dad are dish water blondes and
my mom and my brother are towhead blondes. We are natural! We are natural
blondes! We just kind of enhance it. Nick's (Brooke's brother)
the only one who doesn't touch his hair.

PR.com: And you guys were home-schooled when you were
growing up?

Brooke Hogan: Well, we went to grade school. Me and my brother
did half of high school. We did half of high school because right in the
middle of high school is when our careers started taking off. Nick, he
was in about tenth grade and he started racing, and when I was in about
tenth grade, I started singing.

PR.com: Your album, Undiscovered, it has two
different release dates. When you say it gets released digitally in September,
is that through iTunes?

Brooke Hogan: On iTunes on September 26th you can buy the
album. If you want a sneak peak and you don't care about the pictures
inside the album and you just want the music. So that's iTunes on the
26th of September. And then the actual album with all the pictures and
lyrics and merchandise pages and stuff, comes out on October 24th.

PR.com: The single "About Us," is that on
the radio now?

Brooke Hogan: Yes. It's on most radio stations around America
and it's doing really well actually. It's climbing the charts and so is
the video, so I'm excited!

PR.com: I know that your single, "About Us"
was downloaded 1 million times on your MySpace page. What does that do
for you as far as album sales? What are the positive results of that?

Brooke Hogan, Hulk Hogan, Linda Hogan, &
Nick Hogan

Brooke Hogan: After seeing the kids' movement and their
action what people don't know is that record labels and business
executives watch all of that action and they see what's going on. So when
you do need your song to be played at a radio station or when you do need
your video to be played on MTV, they'll look at it and say, "Do people
like her?" And they'll look at the action. That's how it works.

Shortly after our interview, Brooke's video for "About
Us" was number 1 on VH1's music video countdown. You can vote for
Brooke Hogan's "About Us" at VH1.com.

PR.com: And you guys are currently filming the third
season of Hogan Knows Best? You and your family?

Brooke Hogan: Yup. [The new season starts in] October, right
when the album comes out.

PR.com: That's a big month for you!

Brooke Hogan: Yeah, and on top of it, FHM Magazine, I
did a photo shoot for FHM, a little racy but we kept it tasteful. I
didn't do anything racy but it's a racy magazine. I have the cover for
FHM coming out in November.